Joanna Klonsky

Joanna Klonsky

31 | Founder | JKV Strategies

Crain's Chicago Business 40 Uner 40 2016

After covering the 2008 presidential campaign for the Council on Foreign Relations at age 22, Joanna Klonsky returned to Chicago and took a job with PR titan Marilyn Katz. Meanwhile, she wondered how young people, especially women and those of color, could enter local politics. With that, “everything clicked,” says Klonsky, who in 2012 started her own firm to provide communications strategy, consulting and crisis management for elected officials and those seeking office. So far she has worked with the 11-member Progressive Caucus of the Chicago City Council, Cook County state’s attorney candidate Kim Foxx and 2015 mayoral runoff challenger Chuy Garcia, among others.

Clients praise Klonsky for her calm and savvy, her quick wit and gift of understanding news cycle timing. “Very quickly I went from underdog to contender,” says Foxx, who won with 71 percent of the vote. “We went from everyday laughs to an incredibly stressful place, and that’s where I saw Joanna’s intense focus.” Campaigns are grueling, terrible for a workaholic’s well-being. Still, Klonsky says there’s no giving them up: “I never have the same day twice.”

Raised to be a “hard-ass” by antiwar lefties on Chicago’s Far West Side, Klonsky says she learned to navigate male-dominated local politics by taking some basic advice from her two older sisters. She says they taught her to stand up for herself and for others, words that “still drive me.” In that spirit, Klonsky is a founding co-host of Girl Talk, a monthly talk show at the Hideout that celebrates women doing good work.

Quick hits

Recent travels: Barcelona, the Bay Area and Puerto Rico.

In her free time: Produces the live talk show “Girl Talk” at the Hideout and hangs out with her niece and nephew.

Problem she’s trying to solve: How to raise revenue needed to fund schools and invest in communities without overburdening working people and families.

Listen

Joanna Klonsky on the best advice she’s gotten

Story by Anne Moore

“Ninety percent of people think you’re awesome, and there’s always going to be 10 percent of people who talk smack.”